We traveled to Los Cabos Mexico to go diving on the Nautilus Explorer on May 27. The trip had giant Manta Rays, sharks (Galapagos, White Tip, Silver Tip and Hammerheads), bait balls and a lot of fun diving.
A few pictures are in the Socorro 2021 album.
The boat required a Covid test prior to arrival and they gave another prior to getting on the boat. Since I was there early I did the test at the hotel since they offered it (only drawback is if it was positive would have had to quarantine there).
With the test passed and the other folks on the trip arriving we did a checkout dive just outside the harbor. It was cold (71) but not as cold as what the folks got the day before (64). There were a lot of puffer fish hanging around. It was a great crew for this trip and they even stocked some Dr. Pepper for me - I had made the request but forgot about it so it was a nice surprise since I didn't see any in the stores around the hotel.
We got on the boat that evening and had the normal briefings plus Covid briefings (had to wear a mask in common areas, plus the extra cleaning they were doing was outlined). They issue a nautilus lifeline and safety sausage for the trip if you didn't bring your own. It was almost a full boat with some folks from Houston's Oceanic Ventures dive shop filling out the trip - a nice surprise having some more "local to me" folks and they were doing double side mount so it was interesting to watch them gear up and dive. Not an easy setup when diving off of RIBs.
We got underway for the 24 hour crossing from Los Cabos to the Revillagigedo Archipelago where the 2 islands and one sea mount are located. It's all commonly called Socorro but that's actually the name of the largest island.
The first stop was San Benedicto Island where we did another checkout dive (temp 70 brrr but saw an octopus, sharks and a few lobster) off of the large rigid inflatable boats (ribs) and then did the Boiler dive site 3 times where we saw some huge Manta Rays (I knew I would regret not getting a wide angle lens...). Temps stayed in the 71 - 74 degree range here. I dove a 5 mil, 2 mil hooded vest and a 2 mil undergarment and generally it was OK. Cold on a few dives so I'll be investing in a 7 mil before my next cold water dives.
Overnight we moved to Roca Partida where the White Tip sharks sleep in a pile in the crevices. We stayed here for 2 days due to weather around Socorro Island. The diving was at times challenging with currents going around it and the up and down surge that was felt down to about 60 feet. The first day I didn't get many good shots but did the second day when conditions were a little better. We saw several bait balls and I joined a school of jacks for most of one dive - too bad I didn't have gills so I could stay with them longer... 
We moved to Socorro Islands and had some great dives with Manta Rays, dolphins and sharks (a few hammerheads in the distance here).
We move back to San Benedicto for the last dives and had some of the best dives here in Echo Canyon - schools of Hammerheads, Galapagos and Silver Tip sharks. One dive had several huge mantas plus some dolphins. Unfortunately my camera got water in it and the 70 degree temp on that dive fogged it up so bad that I just had a few blurry white pictures... Temps were better on the later dives and the last one got all the way up to 77 degrees.
We celebrated 3 birthdays on the trip - Jennifer aka TabeaK, Kamala aka WreckWench and Kathy aka littlemermaid.
We made the crossing back and it was uneventful since the seas were fairly calm. One of the few calm crossings I've had on this type of trip. So everyone worked on pictures, videos and rested before we got back to the dock in Los Cabos.
Overall a great trip and one I may repeat at some point in the future.
Butch, great recap of a really fabulous trip!!!!
